Easiest States/Territories to Become a Licensed Psychologist

[sanantone]

When graduates of doctoral programs are aiming to work for the federal government as psychologists, they normally seek licensure in a state that does not require post-doctoral internship hours so they can get to work right away. The federal government doesn't care which state or territory you're licensed in; you just need to be licensed somewhere in the U.S. Typically, these job seekers were in a traditional clinical or counseling psychology program that required 1,000 to 1,500 internship hours before graduation. 

But, I decided to look at this from a different angle for online students. They might want to earn a PhD or PsyD 100% online and complete all of their training after conferral of the degree. This limits states/territories one can become licensed in because almost all of them require a pre-doctoral internship or pre-doctoral practicum of a certain number of hours. Or, they might require certain courses that must be taken within the doctoral program that might not be offered in some online programs. It seems like a simple task to just get the courses from an online master's program, but states tend to limit what they call supplementation. For example, one state only allows 6 credit hours to come from outside of the doctoral program. A handful a states require a period of time in residence, which means that you must have spent a certain amount of time on campus. 

Here is the state and territory I recommend. 

1. West Virginia. They don't have a list of required courses; they don't require that the program be designed for licensure; they don't require a certain specialty (many states only recognize school, clinical, counseling, health services, and I/O psychology); or a pre-doctoral, supervised experience. All of the required internship hours can be completed after earning the degree. You'll be issued a Gold Card showing that you are a board-approved, supervised psychologist, which you can use while completing the internship hours. 

2. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico offers its licensure exam in English and Spanish. You can also take the EPPP, which is a national exam, but you'd also need to take the jurisprudence exam in Puerto Rico. They don't require any supervision hours; that means no practicum, field experience, lab hours, internship, or supervised work experience. They will license someone with a master's degree in any field of psychology. The biggest hurdle is that Puerto Rico requires licensees to be bonafide residents of Puerto Rico. I couldn't find specific information on this from the Board of Examiners of Psychologists, but from what's required for another license, I'm guessing that six months of physically living in Puerto Rico is required. 

Honorable Mention: Wisconsin. They require that certain courses be included in the doctoral program and a pre-doctoral experience; however, the pre-doctoral experience can be a practicum, field experience, internship, or laboratory work. They don't specify a minimum number of hours.

---

Clarification: WV requires the degree to be a clinical form of psychology according to the guide (it's not in the law, but there is required graduate coursework listed in the law), and the program must be housed in a department or school within a university that has "psychology" in its name. WV also licenses at the master's level, but additional post-conferral internship hours are required, and half of the master's degree must be completed on campus.

https://psychbd.wv.gov/law/Documents/Ser...202018.pdf